Reviews

Le nozze di Picasso Le nozze di Picasso

Wolf Trap Opera kicked off its summer season with an inventive production of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro inspired by Pablo Picasso that showcased up-and-coming singers.

Canonically ossified Canonically ossified

When such a canonically ossified work like Verdi’s Aïda is directed at all (let alone as ambitiously as Damiano Michieletto at the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino), it does feel like a completely different opera

There’s a parade in town There’s a parade in town

Les Brigands at the Paris Opera is an expensive joke that never lands

Now and at the hour of our death Now and at the hour of our death

This evening of Julius Eastman at Lincoln Center was so good it hurt

Changing habits Changing habits

A new production of Dialogues des Carmélites featuring Anna Caterina Antonacci proves that it’s hard to be an iconoclast in Venice.

Sing out strong Sing out strong

Pride weekend events at San Francisco Opera and Festival Opera are fabulous starts to the Bay Area summer

Pride before the fall Pride before the fall

Opera Parallèle’s Harvey Milk Reimagined offers a fragmented portrait lacking the depth or coherence needed to honor Milk’s legacy

The turning point The turning point

The Comet/Poppea at this summer’s Running AMOC* festival at Lincoln Center is a thrilling, startling, deeply moving experience

Turkish sound bath Turkish sound bath

A brilliant L’italiana in Algeri in Rome has Larry Wolff once again thinking about “singing Turks”

Up an Octavia Up an Octavia

The operatic offerings of Boston Early Music FestivalKeiser‘s Octavia and Telemann‘s Pimpinone and Ino — are delectable discoveries

New world charm New world charm

The Met Orchestra under Yannick Nézet-Séguin surges into summer with a mixed program at Carnegie Hall

They call me the wanderer They call me the wanderer

Kent Nagano‘s and the Richard-Wagner-Akademie‘s historically informed Ring Cycle takes on Siegfried in Dresden

All about her stepmother All about her stepmother

A new recording by the London Symphony Orchestra is the latest landmark in a spring full of Janácek‘s Jenufa

Drama therapy Drama therapy

Carmen in Brussels is dramatically vibrant, if vocally stretched

Sea no evil Sea no evil

A muted production challenges a talented cast in San Francisco Opera’s Idomeneo

Charm city offensive Charm city offensive

A starry concert Aïda in Baltimore proves unusually polished

The head on the cake plate The head on the cake plate

John Yohalem reports on Catapult Opera’s satiating San Giovanni Battista

Do you believe in life after opera? Do you believe in life after opera?

Opera Director and Detroit Opera Artistic Director Yuval Sharon begins his recent book A New Philosophy of Opera by imagining a future – some forty to fifty years from now – in which opera ceases to exist as an art form.

Married to the mob Married to the mob

Contrasting approaches to Regie duke it out in Cavalleria rusticana & Pagliacci and Rusalka in Munich

Those in glass houses Those in glass houses

Krzysztof Warlikowski‘s Der Rosenkavalier at the Théâtre des Champs Elysées surpasses even Nigel Wilkinson‘s high ‘WTF threshhold’

You can go your own way You can go your own way

Eli Jacobson on a luscious evening of early Strauss with Guntram at Carnegie Hall

Not an asset to the abbey Not an asset to the abbey

Francesco Filidei’s new opera The Name of the Rose struggles to bridge the past and the present in Milan

The sweet escape? The sweet escape?

A plodding La bohème in San Francisco never quite takes off

Georges has Georges Georges has Georges

A double bill of rare Bizet works in Paris is not something any of us needs to do more than once